Research & Concept

Before starting this scene, I didn't make any drawings to help me out during the concept stage, but I did imagine the scene in my head and I knew how I was going to proceed with it.

I did some research about the system of the escalator in order to create my own design and to be able to reproduce it in the most realistic way possible. My goal was to create a dynamic vision of architecture with a fantastic atmosphere - not a simple representation.

Just one thing: at the beginning I decided to create this image for my final work studies, but in the end I didn't present it. There is two months work her after I decided to improve the scene for my portfolio. I worked for about during 1 week on the camera and atmosphere alone.

Modelling

For the modelling, I used 3ds Max 9 for the entire scene. The most important piece of this work was the escalator. So, I'll try now to detail the most important stages of the creation of this image, as best I can.

Firstly, I started to draw a spline to give the escalator a good shape. I kept the shape that I made because I could use it to correctly place all the steps of the escalator, and also to make the animation of the steps.

Fig. 01

I transformed the spline in edit poly and began making the first extrude. I then connected all of the edges to in order to place the ramp of the escalator (for this object, I applied a "meshsmooth" in the smoothing group).

Fig. 02

To create the ramp, I extruded the polygons in local normal.

Fig. 03

Next, I connected all of the edges to subdivide the ramp, and I extruded ("by polygon") the polygons on the interior side of the ramp, to obtain the metal plates.

Fig. 04

I rotated the polygons a little to achieve a small incline on the interior side.I also created a support below the escalator where I made a groove to place the ramp.

Fig. 05

Fig. 06

Fig. 07

I some also added some screenshots of the others objects of the scene: steps, concrete slab...